I once followed an African American Homeless Man with Mental Illness for 3 Years

The Stats

49% of all homeless people in the US are African American. Statistics say that African American families are 7 times more likely to become homeless than Caucasian families. Mental Illness brings another dynamic to the situation as 30% of homeless people suffer from a form of mental illness and 23% of homeless people are in the 18-30 years of age group and mainly male. I followed the life of one homeless man in Silicon Valley for 3 years. During my time with him I met others just like him.  All African American, all suffering from mental illness with conditions ranging from Severe Depression to Schizophrenia, all were completely alone.  Some were scared, angry and simply trying to survive on streets in San Jose.  

I am a Quiet Observer

Every morning for 2 years I would go out to a parking lot at 4 am and drop off food for a young African American man who slept in the same spot every night. He would never speak to me, generally he would just walk away from me and wander off talking to himself. He had been on the street so long the soles of his shoes were completely worn away, his pants had fallen apart and he used a shirt or a blanket to cover his bare butt so no one could tell he was practically naked. I did leave clothes and backpacks full of survival items, but he would never take them and he would throw them away.

He did not have a drug problem and he did not drink, he was sick and really needed help. Most homeless people find a way to a shelter or bathroom to wash up but this man would not go. He did not trust anyone and the few people you would catch him have a small conversation with never asked about clothes or a shower they only spoke of God to him or offered a cigarette.  He was deteriorating on the streets even his walk had changed, he limped and was slow and tired and only 20 years of age.

I began campaigning for this man, talking to the police and EMT workers in the area just trying to raise awareness and concern for his condition, but always walked away with the same response. He says that he is fine so we cannot help or he passed or evaluation we cannot do anything. A half-naked man who has not showered in what appears to be 2 years talking to himself was not OK and their evaluation system is broken.

Family, Mental Illness and the Law

Once a person turns 18 parents have little to no room of helping their kids when they become mentally ill. The catch to this as I learned from the Ritter House in San Rafael California is that for most families the signs and symptoms can be mild throughout childhood and one day generally between 18-23 years of age, a person becomes full blown with their mental illness leaving parents in a legal uphill battle to help. Due to the fact that these medical evaluations conducted by Police and EMT personal are so vague an adult can simply say I am fine and be left in an untreated state. If treatment is received it is up to the mentally ill patient to continue that treatment and for the people I met on the street none would have been able to do so, I mean they did not even realize they were sick.  The ones on the street that I did meet whom were medicated only remained medicated while in temporary hospital crisis situations and stopped their medication when they left the facility.

Due to the lack of understanding the illness and laws not in favor of family helping their loved one most of the families I met gave up and let their sons leave. Socioeconomic situations were not in their favor either, see if a parent has conservatorship or guardianship of an adult they then become financially liable for everything that adult requires and state funded medical does not cover live in care facilities. In other words parents that try and want to stay involved carry a hefty bill and the stress of figuring out how to fund the care needs of that person. Those facilities cost anywhere from $900-2500 a month. Yes you can bring them home and care for them there but what happens when you work full time or have personal issues requiring your attention. The system is just not set up to treat mentally ill people for a long term period of time. It really cheats them by not funding more programs designed to teach and educate them as to how to live on their own. Either they get so bad they get lock away in an institution by the court or social services or they get to a point that they appear fine and have absolutely no living skills behind them. It really is an injustice to them. I implore congress to change the laws to help mentally ills persons giving greater access to families by financially supporting them and providing education, by continuous funding of programs like NAMI and local care facilities to empower homeless mentally ill to learn how to live again.

My Police Encounter

It is year 2 and I am still checking on my homeless friend who sleeps in the parking lot. He is getting really sick but he now has shoes and a big Spider Man blanket to cover his almost naked body. Given the condition he was in I just had to approach a police office. I said can you please help him there has to be something you can do. He took one look at me and said if this were my son I would kidnap him and drop him at a crisis center, look if you do it I won’t say anything but there is nothing I can do. Not kidding, this was San Jose Police Department. So I just went on a campaign for this man highlighting him to local stores and shops on the street he liked to sleep in doing so I figured the police or EMT services could not ignore an entire neighborhood.

A few weeks later I could not find him anymore. I did put my phone number in his belongings that last time I saw him with the hope he would call if he needed help. I met another African American male with mental illness during this period whom I would go and have lunch with from time to time. Nice man he just really did not like his medication nor did he think that he needed it. He has been in and out of crisis quite a few times but the reality was the state was not going to help him as he was always deemed able to care for himself. He still walks the streets and I see him regularly, these men are sleeping on concrete in freezing cold temperatures and they are not in their right minds yet if he can say I am fine then he remains in those conditions. We live in a country that will execute an African American male before they will teach, educate and rehabilitate one. It is simply deplorable.

Facilities for the Mentally Ill

About 3 months from my last visit with the homeless man who disappeared, I was contacted by Valley Medical Center’s crisis unit in San Jose California. Apparently this man had been in and out of crisis a few times in the 3 month period, he would leave and sleep on a bench right outside their front door so the doctors finally decided they would keep him in the unit and that he was safer there. Through investigation I knew everything about this man so I was able to answer their questions. They labeled him as a catatonic among a few other things and medicated him as such. He was not catatonic to say the least I once followed him on a 6 hour walk, he was sick yes and needed treatment and rehabilitation.

I visited him often and one day he began to talk. This man is one of the most artistic creative people I have ever met with extreme patience, kind and considerate of your feelings and fully in tune to his surroundings. With a haircut and a shower this man looked like Will Smith’s long lost brother. He was doing well although he had a long way to go this was a huge victory, medicated and off of the hard cold concrete. As time passed he was assigned a social worker and conservatorship was awarded to the social worker through the court. He was moved to a lock down facility known as Crestwood in San Jose California, where he spent the next 6 months.

These facilities are supposed to help the people that enter them and on some levels it did but it was not and is not enough. These facilities are labeled as rehabilitation centers. Rehabilitation means to restore something to its original state. I would like to hear the way our government defines that because in order to accomplish a task such as this with mentally ill persons, it would require facility workers trained to rehabilitate not one’s trained to shove medication in you and leave you in a room alone. It would require facility workers to become mental health care providers teaching and encouraging these patients to rehabilitate not using statements like, well if he does not want to do something he does not have to and give him a bag of condoms just in case he wants to have sex in the facility. This is not health care this is caging people and giving them no future. This is health workers who have not a clue what providing health care is. I could account for a time when I visited that the staff member fell asleep in the visiting room while families were there to see their love one or another time when I arrived the man I came to visit had a rash all over his body that went totally unnoticed by staff and I had to demand he be allowed to see a medical doctor.

I deeply connected myself within the facility because this man needed an advocate and encouragement, something he was not finding within his surroundings. I attended his discharge meetings and eventually took conservatorship because he had no one else to turn to that would look out for his best interest. People that work in these facilities or for them tend to no longer see the person as you can visually see it when you are there, they become cattle at medication time and a file at others. I was completely set back by the things I observed. It is no wonder the doors of these facilities are constantly revolving with the same faces over and over again and until the law holds these facilities to a higher standard this will remain the story for mentally ill patients.

On to Crisis Housing we move

Discharge meetings are interesting given the fact that a person requires complete truth to make educated decisions regarding the future of another human being. I was sold a great story which turned out to be a pretty deceptive lie. I was told this man would go onto a new facility where he would learn livings skills and have constant supervision learning how to get around like taking a bus or going to a library and that this would be a transition house where he would live for 6 weeks. I was also told Medical covered the fees of the facility and that there was nothing for me to worry about. Well, they lied; the program was 2 weeks not 6, he could come and go as he pleased and if he did not follow the rules he would be asked to leave and the big one medical did not cover it I had to pay for it.

The facility itself was far better than the previous lock-down no future unit but the truth is no one can learn living skills in 2 weeks I mean even 6 weeks was pushing it. It takes longer than 2 weeks to break bad habits and to learn new ones. This entire situation was setting this man up for failure, from lying to get him there to the oddly strange idea 2 weeks would be just the right amount of time to rehabilitate a person. The fact is even as a conservator I had no choice in the matter choice is taken away by a board of people whom swear to know best however, I am sure that if I asked what this man’s favorite color was or favorite food the answer would have been I do not know. You cannot know best unless you know him and genuinely know the history of a person. He had lived in a home before, he had a family before and he preferred the streets to shelter and a shower, he did not understand his value as a human being. The treatment this man required would take longer than 2 weeks and more than let me show you the bus route. The financial side of that proposes far too many difficulties for most working people myself included.

A lot of truth

Mental Health Care needs to become a priority in this country. 42 million people nationwide suffer from some form of mental illness, which is 1 and 5 Americans. With numbers so high and increasing every year one would like to believe a higher priority would be placed on such a matter. Funding, Training, and the reconstruction of the system from intake to discharge should be placed in the highest of priorities. Families need and require more access in the decision making process of admitting their adult family member into a facility in a time of crisis. Transparency and honesty should take precedence over opening a bed for the next person, there should be enough beds to service all. Whole, healed and functioning people should be the ultimate goal for our society.